Accident Reconstruction Network > News >September 2008

Accident Reconstruction News Article

ATV crash kills two

GRASSFLAT - A double head-on crash of all-terrain vehicles here in Clearfield County Sunday evening killed two men, left another in a coma and seriously injured yet another.

The crash along an easy curve on dirt-surfaced Peale Road in Cooper Township killed Jerome McClusick, 43, of Bellfonte and Joseph Kuneck, 38, of Pottstown.

It left Lester Walk, 20, of Morrisdale in critical condition and Adam Ehrlick, 40, of Pottstown in serious condition, both at Altoona Regional System, and bruised and battered Angela Heatley, 43, of Bellefonte, McClusick's fiancee.

Heatley had her head tucked behind the back of McClusick, who was at the head of a group of 10 friends who'd just decided to call it an evening, when the crash occurred, just as it was starting to get ''dusky,'' Heatley said.

Kuneck and Ehrlick were coming around the curve toward them.

McClusick apparently tried to swerve, Heatley said.

Walk's ATV was right behind them, she said.

Home from the hospital Monday, Heatley recalled a friend in the group asking her to ''stay with me, stay with me.''

''In my head, I was saying yes,'' she said.

Beyond that, she doesn't remember much until she awoke in the hospital.

Jerry, however, ''didn't make any noise,'' she said, based on what others told her.

''He just died,'' she said.

A state police accident reconstruction team and a research unit are investigating the crash, said trooper Josh Thorpe of the Clearfield barracks.

He doesn't yet know how fast they were going, but said, ''they weren't putting around.''

The two drivers who died weren't wearing helmets, Thorpe said.

The two who were wearing helmets survived.

Walk is in a coma, however, said Debra Moriarity, who has children who are his half-siblings and who lives less than a mile from the crash site.

Heatley and McClusick planned to marry, probably next spring, Heatley said.

They were both divorced. They met about 2 years ago and ''totally fell in love,'' she said.

''I felt it was meant to be,'' she said of their relationship.

McClusick was ''a lot of fun, easy-going, fair and a hard worker,'' she said.

He was a union pipefitter who'd been working most recently at a factory in Bellefonte.

The youngest of eight siblings, he had a motorcycle and she loved to ride behind him.

They went to the Black Hills for a rally a few weeks ago.

''Normally, his body always shielded me,'' she said. ''Bugs would hit him, cold air would get him.''

But she felt safe.

''He knew what he was doing,'' she said.

On Sunday, she flew over his body.

At the crash site, phosphorescent orange paint outlined what might have been the spot where a body lay in a shallow drainage ditch at the side of the 20-foot wide road, with a used plastic syringe and adhesive bandage packaging lying next to it.

There also was a sizeable spot of oil in the roadway, although the evidence was easy to miss, and was in fact missed by many in vehicles who traveled the road to see the crash site Monday.

Heatley's former next-door neighbor - and current neighbor of Moriarity - Jennifer Hill Ertmer, had noticed with dismay an increase in the number and speed of ATVs heading up her street and onto Peale Road.

She'd had the idea that ''someone in this group is going to end up in the hospital or the morgue,'' she said.

Larry Mayes, secretary of the Snow Shoe Rails to Trails, visited the crash site with his wife, the group president and member Eric Brooks, a certified ATV ridership trainer.

''There's a lesson to be learned here,'' Mayes said.

Riders should wear helmets, keep to their own side of the road and keep their vehicles under control, the group members said.

''Two people died for no reason,'' Mayes said.

They also should ride where ATVs are permitted, such as the rail-trail the group administers, he said.

Peale Road is off-limits to ATVs, Thorpe said.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 949-7038.